This is NOT Fraud Advice--Newsletters

It is always hard to develop a strong opener for these newsletters. What is one line that will interest you, get you to laugh, and remind you that I am a cool, chill guy who runs an epic company?

How about “Dear Friends, Family, and Fraudsters”?

Welcome back. Let's chat about how to make money with a newsletter. We will cover the easy way and the hard way. But first, a classic hook:

Last month, my newsletter made $5k. Here is how I did it:

Okay, I didn't make $5k last month through my newsletter (just my OnlyFans). But let's role-play a bit.

The Hard Way

I spent two years writing a monthly newsletter focused on fraud in the fintech space. I have studied the hooks, lived in this community, and have an intimate understanding of my readers' interests.

Through this work, I have grown my subscriber base to 5,000 people, with a 65% open rate and 10% click-through rate.

With this captive audience of compliance and product leaders, I can ask companies to sponsor my newsletter. With a media pack, I can approach companies directly or head to one of the many newsletter advertisement marketplaces.

I find a company called AI Fraud Prevention Agent. They timed the AI movement perfectly and raised a huge Series A. They are looking to advertise. They love my audience and agree to pay me $10 per click I generate for their ad.

I craft the perfect copy, and 500 people click on the ad. I put in the work, wrote engaging content, and picked the ideal company to advertise to my audience. My reward was $5,000.

The Easy Way

Who the hell has time to spend years forming an audience and writing engaging content? I want to make some quick cash, so here is how I did it:

I signed up for a newsletter platform. Most only require an email and a name. Since this is NOT FRAUD ADVICE, we are not advising you to use a fake name, but for the easy way, you probably should.

I then buy a list of 2,000 emails (cost = ~$250). I will supplement this list with email click bots, so let's make 3,000 of them. You can make these bots yourself with guidance from GPT or head over to the dark web and buy 3k of them for about $150.

These bots open and click links in emails. When I send out my emails, even if none of the actual addresses open the email, my open rate is 60% and click-through rate is 60%. That click-through seems too high to believe, so let's augment the bots so that only 500 of them click the links. Then, we have an open rate of 60% and a CTR of 10%.

Let's head to that ad marketplace, list our stats, and find something to advertise. We don't care what we advertise because our readers aren't real.

We find the same AI Fraud Prevention Agent company desperate for growth; they agree to pay $10 per click I generate. I send an email monthly to my "audience" and generate 500 clicks for AI Fraud. For a total cost of $400, I generated $2,000 through click fraud.

Identity verification and fraud prevention are crucial not only in the financial services world. All marketplaces have a responsibility to their customers to verify their users and block fraudulent activity. Often, these marketplaces are scared of adding friction to the sign-up flow. Footprint supports marketplaces with a seamless flow and run various fraud detection tools to ensure your users are who they say they are. Reach out if you are interested in learning more.